Social Judgement and Mental Effort in Behavior Interpretation

Social Judgement

Explaining Your Own Behavior People explain their behavior differently than the behavior of others.

Positivity Bias People see themselves in a positive light Better Than Average Effect Perception varies by the valence of the action.

H I G H Good Action Bad Action Success, social desirability, impulse control, etc. Failure, social faux pas, loss of control S E L F Make an external attribution Make an internal attribution E S T E E M Difficulty, pressures, temptations Ability, traits, motives, character

But what about those with low self-esteem?

L O W Good Action Bad Action Success, social desirability, impulse control, etc. Failure, social faux pas, loss of control S E L F Make an internal attribution Make an external attribution E S T E E M Ability, traits, motives, character Difficulty, pressures, temptations

The Role of Mental Effort Cognitive Needs Need for Cognition How much mental stimulation do you need vs do you have? Mood Social Status Positive Mood: Cognitive shortcuts Snap judgements Prone to stereotypical thinking Negative Mood: Vigilance Problem-solving Attention to detail Low Status: External attributions High accuracy when judging emotions High Status Internal attributions Low accuracy when judging emotions Need for Closure Comfort with ambiguity

The Role of Mental Effort How do we make sense of ambiguity? Chronic Accessibility - Past Experience - Priming - Recent Experience - Unconscious Priming: subliminal perception influencing judgements Exposure to positive and negative mood Violent Background: confrontations are aggressive Non-Violent Background: Confrontations are constructive

The Role of Culture Individualistic Cultures Collectivistic Cultures Success is attributed to the individual internal attributions Success is attributed to outside factors external attributions Failure is attributed to the outside factors external attributions Failure is attributed to the individual internal attributions

Stability of Social Judgement Dogmatic Wishy-Washy Both can be adaptive Commitment Growth Perseverance Understanding Resistance to Stability Open-mindedness

Bias in Judgement Selective Attention Behavior Interpretation Confirmation Bias Biases and preconceptions Negativity effect Lower-level actions are open to high- level interpretations Duncan (1976): hostile vs playful pushing Tends to favor one s opinion/attitudes Looking for evidence that confirms biases Superstitions, conspiracy theories, etc. Bad is stronger than good Figure-ground judgement

CLICK HERE for a clip on the Behavior Interpretation CLICK HERE for a clip on the Confirmation Bias. CLICK HERE for a clip on the Selective Attention.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Autistic Hostility Avoiding a group against which you hold negative attitudes Expecting an outcome to occur (previous experience, doubt) Never collect any evidence to contradict negative attitudes Behaving in a way that causes that outcome (not necessarily consciously) Negative attitudes can persist without conflicting information I knew it would happen all along! the prophecy is fulfilled

For a clip on Self-Fulfilling Prophecy CLICK HERE

Changing Social Judgement Disassembly and Reconfiguration *Resistant to inconsistent information and dissent High-level, stable judgement comprised of lower-level details Disassemble judgement into low-level details re-assemble a new judgement!

And finallyPerspective Taking Focus of attention: Redirect attention to the context surrounding an actor Empathy: Taking the perspective of the actor